BIRDS OF NEW YORK l8l 



Lophodytes cucuUatus (Linnaeus) 

 Hooded Merganser 



Plate II 



Mcrgus cucullatus Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. lo. 1758. 1:129 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. \A 2, p. 320, fig. 265 

 Lophodytes cucullatus. A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. ^'^- '3' 



lophod'ytes, Gr. Xo<^os, crest, and Svnjs, diver; cuculld'tus, Lat., hooded 



Description. Male: A large helmet-shaped crest, white bordered 



with black; rest of head, neck and upper parts black; sides cinnamon - 

 rufous finely barred with black ; a tuft of enlarged feathers on sides of breast 

 in front of the wing with double bars of black and white; speculum white 

 with two black bars; inner secondaries striped along the center with white; 

 breast and belly white; bill black, legs light brown; iris yellow. Female: 

 Head, neck and upper parts grayish brown, darker on the back; the head 

 and neck tinged with cinnamon, especially on the crest which is quite 

 conspicuous; throat, breast and belly white; middle wing coverts and secon- 

 daries show each a patch of white. Immature: Similar, but crest smaller. 

 Downy young: Dark hair brown above; spots on each side of back and 

 rump, and rear border of wing grayish white ; lower half of head buff, lighter 

 on throat; chest dingy; belly white. 



Length 17-18 inches; extent 25-27; wing 7.5-8; tail 4; tarsus 1.1-1.2; 

 middle toe and claw 2.35; bill 1.4-1.5. 



Field marks. The wonderful crest of the male is distinctive even at a 

 considerable distance, our only other bird which resembles him even remotely 

 being the Buffle-head. The female may be recognized by the slim mergine 

 bill, cinnamon crest, and small size for a merganser. 



The Hooded merganser. Swamp sheldrake. Hairy-head, or Water 

 pheasant is generally distributed in New York State, occurring in man>' 

 places where the other mergansers are unknown, because of its habit of 

 frequenting swamps and ponds which are too small to attract the other 

 species. It has been known to breed in the counties of Cayuga, Eric, 

 Jefferson, Ontario, Wayne, as well as those of the Catskill and Adirondack 

 regions, and Mr Howell has also found it on Long Island in midsummer, 

 but there seems to be no breeding record for that district. It is rarely 

 fotind throughout the winter within our borders, but is fairly common as 

 a migrant, arriving from the south late in March and going north in April, 



